When Brian Patrick wakes up every day, he logs on to his laptop and begins combing by social media, information articles, and YouTube movies to seek out the craziest issues distinguished AI executives have ever mentioned. He at all times finds one thing.
There’s the clip of Oracle founder Larry Ellison admitting to constructing physique cameras that file customers whereas they’re within the rest room. A sound chunk of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk advocating for merging people with AI. Even an interview with Pal CEO Avi Schiffmann, by which he compares his relationship with AI wearables to peoples’ relationships with God.
As soon as he’s pulled one among these clips, Patrick breaks down its claims in a video for his AI Government Madness Collection, a social media mission that’s chronicling one wild AI govt assertion day by day all through 2026.
The collection—at the moment at 181 installments and counting—has notched tens of tens of millions of views and 1000’s of feedback because the begin of the yr, and continues to achieve steam with every new installment.
The collection is a part of a broader effort, spearheaded by Patrick, to convene a group of like-minded individuals fascinated by taking “democratic management” of AI.
By means of his self-founded group, Panodime, he’s constructing an internet site and an app (anticipated to debut throughout the subsequent a number of weeks) aimed toward serving to educate individuals about developments within the AI tech area and connecting these people to potential alternatives for collective motion.
He believes the general public ought to be allowed to cease, pause, or direct AI growth by a democratic course of, slightly than permitting the know-how’s energy to relaxation within the arms of a choose few technocrats—and he’s bringing extra consideration to that alternative, one video at a time.
“[AI] simply reached a degree the place it was clear to me that it was going to go off the rails in methods which are going to be irreversible if we don’t do something about it within the close to future,” Patrick says, including, “There’s a small group of unaccountable individuals primarily in Silicon Valley who’re deciding the way forward for humanity in actually profound methods. That’s what motivated me.”
Taking AI execs at face worth
Looking down AI executives’ newest scorching takes is Patrick’s full-time job.
Earlier than operating Panodime, Patrick studied political concept at Georgetown, attended Harvard Legislation College, and labored as a software program developer. He says his analysis into AI executives accelerated a couple of yr in the past—and he started uncovering interviews and statements that shocked and unnerved him.
At that time, he determined to give up his day job and put all of his vitality into educating the general public on the small group of technologists on the forefront of the AI revolution.
“I believe simply increasingly the best way I heard them converse, it was so disturbing to me,” Patrick says. “The extra I listened to it, the extra I noticed that I didn’t know the depth of it—and I felt like most individuals weren’t conscious of the depth of it. Most individuals simply aren’t conscious of what number of commonplace deviations these persons are away from the imply, and the way their views of the world are so warped in very disturbing methods.”
“I’m satisfied that the job destruction within the subsequent couple of many years goes to be huge”
Daily, Patrick searches totally different AI executives throughout social media platforms, on YouTube, and on search engines like google to uncover new nuggets for his movies. Typically, he says, his course of contains diving into remark sections and replies to seek out essentially the most startling subjects, or watching the context round viral clips to seek out different attention-grabbing particulars.
Generally his finds are newer, like one clip from early June of Palantir CEO Alex Karp claiming his firm has “100 million followers.” Others are pulled from a lot older sources.
Among the most alarming content material, Patrick says, traces again to an period earlier than AI executives “buttoned up” their speaking factors round their know-how. One such instance is a 2009 article by which enterprise capitalist and AI fanatic Peter Thiel laid out his final goal of “escaping world politics” by settling three frontiers: our on-line world, outer area, and the ocean.
One other is a 2015 panel, hosted at Stanford, whereby OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged, verbatim, “I’m satisfied that the job destruction within the subsequent couple of many years goes to be huge. I don’t truly suppose it is a new factor. I believe know-how has at all times created and concentrated wealth however destroyed jobs, however, actually, one of many issues that I wrestle with getting off the bed each morning is that my job is to assist individuals destroy jobs.” Extra lately, Altman has walked back the concept AI will result in a “jobs apocalypse.”
Patrick sees these clips as examples of the sorts of conversations AI executives are having behind closed doorways—and he believes that after persons are educated on them, there will likely be sufficient collective dissent to begin a motion towards the unchecked growth of extra highly effective AI instruments.
“I believe there’s a whole lot of vitality and a whole lot of collective will to vary this, and one of the encouraging issues is that it’s not coming from one area, one political persuasion, or background,” Patrick says. “It’s only a very various group of people who find themselves involved. It’s essentially a human drawback, and I believe lots of people acknowledge that.”
